> It's generally either total ignorance or "I didn't want to get fined" that lead to situations like the article. The latter is the same reason shady companies don't record where they disposed of chemicals in the woods, but somehow it's okay for you? Because you have convinced yourself you are "preserving history" by removing a bronze axehead from a location that has preserved it for over 2000 years?
You’re heaping a lot of assumptions on to people who do metal detecting.
What makes you so confident that these people went out with the goal of finding and destroying archaeological sites with their metal detector? Finding archaeological artifacts is an extremely rare edge case in metal detecting. I doubt these people had any idea they were digging up valuable artifacts until they were completely out.
> It's generally either total ignorance or "I didn't want to get fined" that lead to situations like the article
When the fine is on the order of a decent annual income, it should come as no surprise that people don’t want to get fined. It should also come as no surprise that anyone who discovers any artifacts like this would be highly incentivized to hide their origin.
I don’t know what you expect. For someone to generously turn their probably accidental finding in and pay a massive amount of money for the privilege?
I've heard a bit about metal detecting in the UK from a relative who is into it. I assume the laws aren't too far off how it works in Ireland.
I know that finding hoards of 1000+ year old coins is completely par for the course and is really the goal of the exercise. It may be different in the new world where ancient metal is uncommon, but that's how it works here.
Groups like the one my relative is in get special permission to search on building sites before they lay the foundations. I believe the developers are obliged to allow this. Destruction of the archeological context isn't such a concern there because the site is being destroyed anyway, but detectorists are still legally obliged to report any treasures to the authorities and can be forced to sell them to a museum.
You’re heaping a lot of assumptions on to people who do metal detecting.
What makes you so confident that these people went out with the goal of finding and destroying archaeological sites with their metal detector? Finding archaeological artifacts is an extremely rare edge case in metal detecting. I doubt these people had any idea they were digging up valuable artifacts until they were completely out.
> It's generally either total ignorance or "I didn't want to get fined" that lead to situations like the article
When the fine is on the order of a decent annual income, it should come as no surprise that people don’t want to get fined. It should also come as no surprise that anyone who discovers any artifacts like this would be highly incentivized to hide their origin.
I don’t know what you expect. For someone to generously turn their probably accidental finding in and pay a massive amount of money for the privilege?